Written by

Mike Lopresti

USA Today

LONDON — Her daughter has cried. Her daughter has hurt. Her daughter had a childhood dream crushed in one night, by fate and a screwy rule. That is not supposed to happen when you're 16.

Nobody would know that better than a mother.

So the question: How was Rita Wieber feeling Thursday?

It was the night Jordyn Wieber was to be crowned queen of the women's gymnastics universe. That was the plan, anyway. Instead, she wasn't even in the field in the Olympics all-around competition. All those hours of work, all those years of sacrifice. All that time spent imagining what the top of the world would feel like.

Instead Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman were competing, and Jordyn Wieber was watching.

Anyone could guess the anguish. But a parent could understand it.

"It's a little tough. I'm sad because I know Jordyn, deep inside, her heart's breaking a little bit," Rita said over the phone, after a bike ride through London.

"It's not exactly what we wanted, but there's no changing that and there's really no sense in dwelling on it. All we can do is be happy for the other girls. And let Jordyn move on.''

Rita was not headed to the arena. The night that was a goal for so long? She wasn't going to be there.

It was the last evening in London for her sister and her friends.

"Tickets are super expensive, and it doesn't make sense for them to spend thousands of dollars to watch girls they don't even know," she said. "So I decided to stay with them. But we'll be watching. Just because we're not going to be there live doesn't mean we're not supporting the girls.''

Jordyn finished fourth in qualifying. Not bad. Really good, in fact. Except the Olympic rule limits two to a country for the finals, and she finished behind Douglas and Raisman. Pretty strong team, those American lasses, as they showed when they rolled to the team gold.

Wieber had a better score than 21 of the women who competed for the all-around gold medal Thursday night. Didn't matter.

To be sure, this is not a totally unhappy ending. Jordyn was a key part of the team gold, and she'll always have that. But the sense of helplessness the night the roof caved in on the all-around dream will be a lingering bad memory.

"I couldn't see her. I was teary. It was one of the hardest things I've had to deal with, knowing my daughter was so sad and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I couldn't even talk to her," Rita said. "I talked to her later that night and she was crying, so I know it was a rough night for her. A couple of hours later she talked to some of her siblings, and she was already getting past it and focusing on the team competition.''

The days have passed. The team gold medal happened. Kids bounce back.

But Thursday could not have been easy. For the daughter, for the mother.

"Aly is one of her best friends, and Gabby is one of her good friends. I know it's going to be hard, but she's been on the fortunate side of things many times and the other girls haven't.

"That's just the way it worked out. She got to be here, she won a gold medal and I'm sure she's just going to focus on that."

And the mother?

"I'm always going to be disappointed. I'm never going to be able to say, 'Oh, it was no big deal.' But there's really no sense carrying a grudge or being bitter or anything like that. I just feel like things happen for a reason. I just have a strong faith that is true."

And then Rita Wieber headed out to dinner, rather than the gymnastics finals.